The Read/Write Web
The Read/Write Web Before 1989 the Internet was not much more than a network of computers that researchers and government officials used to share text and data. But Bemers-Lee saw the potential to construct a vast "web" of linked information, built by people from around the globe, creating the ability to share not just data but personal talents and experiences in new and powerful ways. Then the efforts of Berners-Lee came to change the Internet from a text- and numbers-based research tool for the few to a colorful, graphic world of information for the masses. Even though content was limited in those early days, millions of people soon started going online to read or "surf " the Web for information and entertainment. And as access spread, connections became faster, and more and more Web designers and authors set up shop, the twentieth century ended with the Internet taking its place as an essential communications and research network connecting people around the globe. But even with that initial period of immense and rapid growth, the original vision of being able to read and write to the Web was slow (in Internet terms, at least) to be realized. Writing to the Web required knowledge of the HTML codes that make Web pages work and of the protocols to get those pages up and running. To be sure, there were text-based newsgroups to share ideas and some sites like Amazon.com where readers could leave reviews and opinions. But for the most part, the ability to create content on the Web was nowhere near as easy as consuming it, and even those who could create did so with little means for easy collaboration. A NEW WORLD WIDE WEB The past few years have seen the development of an explosion of easy Internet publishing tools that have done much to fulfill Berners-Lee's concept of a Read/Write Web. As early as 2003, a Pew Internet & American Life Project found that more than 53 million American adults, or 44 percent of adult Internet users, had used the Internet to publish their thoughts, respond to others, post pictures, share files, and otherwise contribute to the explosion of content available online (Lenhart, Fallows, & Horrigan, 2004). And in 2007, another Pew study showed that 64 percent of all teens who use the Internet could be considered "content creators" (Lenhart, Madden, Macgill, & Smith, 2007). Blogs (short for Weblogs) are the first widely adopted easy publishing tool of the Read/Write Web, which people use to create personal journals of their lives, build resource sites with colleagues, or filter the news of the day for audiences large and small with no need to know how to code pages or transfer files. And there is no doubt that blogs have become an influential medium in all walks of life, from politics to personal passions. Today, we are beginning to create and share our thoughts and lives online as a natural part of our daily lives. The Read/Write Web has arrived. In the last few years, multimedia publishing by the masses has exploded. In early 2009, over 20 hours' worth of videos were being uploaded to YouTube.com each minute (that's right, I said minute), and YouTube.com is just one of dozens of popular video-publishing sites on the Web. Millions of photos, thousands of audio files, and countless other creations are now being added every day to the incredibly vast storehouse of information that the Web has become. We're in the midst of an explosion of technologies that will continue to remake the Web into the community-driven, participatory space Berners-Lee originally envisioned, changing our lives in many significant ways. These changes are already playing out in politics, journalism, and business. And from an educational standpoint, this new Read/Write Web promises to transform much of how we teach and learn as well. In the process, we can learn much about our world and ourselves. In almost every area of life, the Read/Write Web is changing our relationship to technology and rewriting the age-old paradigms of how things work. No doubt, these changes will take many more years to process. EXTRAORDINARY CHANGES Clay Shirky, the author of Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing without organization, writes that these new Web technologies are creating a "tectonic shift" in the world, not simply because of what they allow us to publish, but because of what happens after we publish. Simply put, when we share online, we create the potential for connections in ways that were simply not possible even a few years ago. And in the context of those connections, we can form groups around our various passions and interests, a capability that fundamentally changes almost everything. In other areas of our lives, however, we can see some of these transformations happening right now, right in front of our eyes. The ability to easily publish text, pictures, and video is also changing the face of journalism and media as we know it. In reality, the Read/Write Web has created millions of amateur reporters who now have their own digital printing presses. More recently, businesses have begun exploring the use of Weblogs, wikis, and even Twitter for a variety purposes, from public relations to customer service to internal communications. W hen Microsoft began offering up Web log space to some of its developers a few years ago, potential customers had an opportunity not only to read about the inner workings of the company, but they also had a chance to respond and participate. No matter how you look at it, we are creating what author Douglas Rushkoff calls a "society of authorship" where every teacher and every student---every person with access-will have the ability to contribute ideas and experiences to the larger body of knowledge that is the Internet. And in doing so, Rushkoff says, we will be writing the human story, in real time, together-a vision that asks each of us to participate (Rushkoff, 2004). THE READ/WRITE WEB IN EDUCATION Our students' realities in terms of the way they communicate and learn are very different from our own. Without question, our ability to easily publish content online and to connect to vast networks of passionate learners will force us to rethink the way we communicate with our constituents, the way we deliver our curriculum, and the expectations we have of our students. The Web also has the potential to radically change what we assume about teaching and learning, and it presents us with important questions to consider: What needs to change about our curriculum when our students have the ability to reach audiences far beyond our classroom walls? What changes must we make in our teaching as it becomes easier to bring primary sources to our students? How do we need to rethink our ideas of literacy when we must prepare our students to become not only readers and writers, but editors and collaborators and publishers as well? And, I think most importantly, how can we as learners begin to take advantage of the opportunities these tools present? at its heart, the implications of this new Web are all about learning first, teaching second. Results of a Net day survey released in March 2005 assert that technology has become "an indispensable tool in the education of today's students." The survey showed that 81 percent of students in Grades 7-12 have e mail accounts, 75 percent have at least one Instant Messenger (1M) screen name, and that 97 percent believe strongly that technology use is important in education. And, the fastest-growing age group for using the Internet is 2 to 5 year olds. This immersion in technology has neurological effects as well. William D. Winn, director of the Learning Center at the University of Washington, believes that years of computer use results in children who "think differently from us. They develop hypertext minds. They leap around. It's as though their cognitive structures were parallel, not sequential" (Prensky, 2001a). In other words, today's students may not be well suited to the more linear progression of learning that most educational systems employ. Most teachers in today's schools, meanwhile, were not surrounded by technology growing up. And the speed with which these technologies have been developed (remember, the Web browser is only 15 years old) means that it's a daunting task for many to catch up to their students. L EARNERS AS T EACHERS Learning in this environment is about being able to construct, develop, sustain, and participate in global networks that render time and place less and less relevant. In fact, in a world where our students will hold between 12 and 14 jobs by the time they reach 38 years old, it's imperative we develop in them a kind of network literacy to guide them in this process. That doesn't mean that every teacher needs to start a blog or create a wiki or a podcast. But it does mean that, as educators, we must tap into the potentials that these tools give us for learning. And that doesn't just mean learning about our craft or technology or our curriculum. It means learning about whatever we are passionate about. Giving students a chance to share their work with a global audience is an important first step, but there is much more to it. It's the conversations, the links, and the networks that grow from them afterward that really show us the profound implications for lifelong learning. THE TOOLBOX The teacher's toolbox is made up of a mix of those that publish, those that manage information, and those that share content in new collaborative ways. This toolbox contains the following items: I. Weblogs 2. Wikis 3. Really Simple Syndication (RSS). 4. Aggregators 5. Social Boolanarking. 6. Online Photo Galleries. 7. Audio/Video Casting. 8. Twitter. 9. Social Networking Sites Today, despite the relative newness of these tools, thousands of teachers and students are using Weblogs, wikis, RSS, and the rest to enhance student learning in safe, productive, effective ways. No doubt, employing these tools is not as simple as exchanging paper in a closed classroom environment. But the learning opportunities that these tools offer makes it worth all of our whiles to create best practices in our own right.